Jackson Local Schools responds to ex-teacher's lawsuit over pronoun use

Jackson Local school leaders are disputing a former Jackson Memorial Middle School teacher’s claim that she was forced to resign because she refused to call two students by names that are different than their biological sex.

Attorneys for the public school district of roughly 6,000 students say school administrators never asked Vivian Geraghty to resign from her teaching position, never threatened to discipline or fire her, gave her ample time to withdraw her voluntary resignation and offered a variety of alternatives that she rejected, according to Jackson’s 19-page response filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

The district believes the lawsuit should be dismissed because Geraghty never pursued the administrative remedies that were available to her under the Jackson Memorial Education Association’s collective bargaining agreement. The union contract provides a multistep grievance process that teachers can initiate to resolve their complaints.

Geraghty, a 2016 Canton Early College High School graduate who began teaching English at Jackson in August 2020, filed a federal lawsuit in December against the Jackson Local school board, Superintendent Chris DiLoreto, curriculum director Monica Myers and middle school principal Kacy Carter that claims they violated her rights to free speech and free exercise of religion in August 2022 when administrators tried to force her to set aside her Christian beliefs as a condition to keep her job.

Geraghty, through her court complaint that was filed by Alliance Defending Freedom, states she refused to call two seventh graders by names reflecting their gender identities rather than their legal names because her faith teaches her that rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. She also believes using the students’ preferred names and pronouns would violate biblical commands against dishonesty and lying, and that participating in the “social transition” of a student would be harmful to herself and to the student.

Her lawsuit, which has gained national attention, has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Pamela A. Barker.

What do Jackson Local School District’s attorneys say happened?

In Jackson’s response, school district leaders say Geraghty was the one who was trying to discriminate.

They said when Geraghty learned that two of her students wanted teachers to call them by different names, she insisted that the students be removed from her classroom.

District officials contend that removing students from a classroom due to their gender identity would violate Title IX, which the U.S. Department of Education has interpreted to mean the federal law protects students from discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Attorney Lee Plakas, the lead attorney representing the school district, said in an interview with The Canton Repository that the parents of the two students in Geraghty's class are supportive of their children using the preferred names and pronouns.

"You would think that society would recognize that mother knows best, parents know best," Plakas said. "They know their child. They know their child's needs. That's their responsibility. The school's responsibility is not to engage in any sort of harassment or discrimination of any sort."

The district said Geraghty continued to use the students’ biological names and pronouns, despite receiving a message on Aug. 22 from one of the students that said, “… I know it’s the start of the school year and it’s hard to remember names, but I’d really appreciate it if you called me (preferred name).”

When that didn’t work, the student sought help from a school counselor, who then emailed all of the student’s teachers to restate the student’s preferences, the district said.

The email prompted Geraghty to approach school administrators on Aug. 26.

What happened next is in dispute.

Was Vivian Geraghty forced to resign?

Geraghty said administrators gave her no alternatives and she would have used the students’ last names if she had been given the chance. The district said administrators provided “numerous” accommodations, including the suggestion that she use the student’s last names or that she avoid using pronouns and use the general neutral preferred names just as she would use a nickname for another student. Administrators said Geraghty dismissed the suggestions stating she “would know what was behind it.”

Geraghty said administrators told her that “she would be required to put her beliefs aside as a public servant,” that her unwillingness to participate amounted to insubordination and that if she were unable to set her religious convictions aside that she had no choice but to resign.

The district said no one threatened Geraghty with discipline and no one forced Geraghty to resign. The district said it even gave Geraghty more than three weeks to withdraw her resignation before the school board accepted it on Sept. 20. The district said Geraghty told her union representative that she did not want her job back and indicated that she no longer wanted to be a teacher.

Geraghty’s attorney Logan Spena disputes the district’s assertion that it gave Geraghty three weeks to reconsider her resignation, citing an Aug. 29 email from DiLoreto that said he accepted her resignation on behalf of the school board, effective Aug. 26.

“Defendants’ response is wrong on the law and dishonest on the facts,” Spena said. “… What really happened is that school officials forced a young teacher into resigning because they told her she had to choose between her job and her constitutional rights. That’s illegal, and we look forward to presenting all of this to the court.”

Attorney: Geraghty will return to work immediately if officials allow her to call students by last name

In a response to the district's claims filed in federal court Wednesday, Geraghty's attorneys said the defendants made false statements as to what happened. Geraghty's legal team contends the defendants distorted facts and misconstrued what really lead up to their client's resignation.

"Defendants try to make it sound like they wanted to work with Ms. Geraghty and even offered to let her avoid use of the pronouns and preferred first names as part of a social transition," the court document said. But they didn't, the document says, rather forcing Geraghty to resign from the position.

According to the document, if the defendants would allow Geraghty to avoid using preferred names and pronouns associated with the students' social transition by using a student's last name then she is willing to accept immediate reinstatement on those terms.

"If defendants won’t reinstate Ms. Geraghty on those terms, then that just proves her story: they constructively discharged her by demanding that she surrender her constitutional rights or her job," the lawyers wrote.

A telephone conference call will be held Monday in the matter.

The court also noted the plaintiff's claim that she would return to work if the defendants would agree to let her call the students by their last names. The judge said both sides should be prepared to discuss that during the call.

Includes reporting by Massillon Independent staff writer Amy Knapp.

Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or kelli.weir@cantonrep.com.

On Twitter: @kweirREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jackson Local responds to Vivian Geherty's lawsuit over pronoun use